(Including All Changes From Published International Application No. PCT/SE00/01666)
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle parking control system, primarily for cars. More specifically, the invention relates to a parking system in which a mobile telephone is used to commence and terminate parking of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A system in which parking of a vehicle is initiated and also terminated with the aid of a mobile telephone is known to the art. According to one such known system, described in the International Patent Application WO 93/20539, a code which identifies the parking site concerned, a vehicle identification code, and a unique code for the driver of the vehicle are sent via the mobile telephone both when commencing and when terminating parking of the vehicle. It is suggested that the vehicle-parking fee be billed through the standard telephone bill.
Swedish Patent Specification 9800888-1 teaches a parking system in which a mobile telephone can be used to commence and terminate parking of a vehicle, where a user sends at least one code to a receiving computer via a mobile telephone or a fixed telephone system when commencing and terminating parking of a vehicle. The number of a credit card or like means of payment in the user""s possession and acceptable by the parking system as means of payment is stored in a database belonging to the computer of the company that owns the car park, together with at least one user-specific reference.
According to one embodiment, a plastic card is produced in the format of a credit card when a user connects to the system. The plastic card contains a machine-readable code that constitutes the user-specific code. For instance, the code has the form of a bar code written on the card. When parking a vehicle, this plastic card is intended to be placed inside the vehicle in a position in which it can be read by a car park attendant from outside the vehicle.
According to this latter patent specification, the car park attendants are equipped with a portable communication unit which is in cordless or wireless connection with a computer belonging to the company that owns the car park concerned and containing information relating to vehicles that have commenced a parking period but have not yet terminated parking. The communications unit may, for instance, be designed in accordance with the control unit described in Swedish Patent Specification 9700054-1. In this case, the car park attendant enters the parking zone concerned into the control unit, which fetches from the computer a so-called parked car list concerning the parking zone in question, i.e., a list of the registration numbers of cars, or vehicles, that have announced the commencement of a parking period. The control unit then compares the read registration numbers with the parked car list and gives an indication when commenced parking of a vehicle has not been recorded.
Alternatively, when a user-specific reference in the form of a plastic card is placed so that it can be seen, the control unit reads the plastic card instead and makes a corresponding comparison with a list of plastic card codes in respect of which commenced vehicle parking has been announced.
This system involves a great deal of comprehensive communication between the control unit used by the car park attendant and the company computer. In principle, two-way communication is required for each vehicle checked. This communication takes a long time to effect and is troublesome to the car park attendant involved. Furthermore, transmission disturbances occur as a result of radio shadows and other disturbance or interference sources, among other things.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to reduce the extent to which radio communication is necessary and to enable checks to be carried out by the car park attendants more easily in other respects.
This object is fulfilled by the present invention.
The present invention thus relates to a parking control system in a parking system in which a mobile telephone can be used to commence and to terminate parking of a vehicle. A user sends at least one code to a receiving computer via a mobile telephone system or via a fixed telephone system when beginning and terminating a parking period. A user-specific vehicle reference, such as a machine readable code or a vehicle registration number is used to identify the vehicle. Parking time billing is effected by means of a computer belonging to the company owning the car park, hereinafter called the company computer, into which a credit card number or the number of a similar card belonging to the user is loaded. A vehicle that can be parked with the aid of a telephone is provided with a reference marking. When checking a parked vehicle a car park attendant causes a control unit to mechanically read the vehicle reference for marked vehicles. The vehicle reference is stored in the control unit together with the current date and time of day. The memory contents of the control unit are transferred into the company computer at a later time stage and there compared with stored information referring to commenced and terminated parking of respective vehicles received by telephone. Parked vehicles which have not been recorded in the company computer at the time of carrying out the check are identified and a parking fine is issued by the company in respect of said vehicles.